"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, June 2, 2018, 11:02 a.m. I thought I had plenty of time to get to Clinton High School’s graduation ceremonies. I got my hair cut, and I didn’t make myself an appointment online, and the lady said it would probably be at least a 40-minute wait. Haircuts are spur-of-the-moment decisions for …
Continue reading As the Thunder Rolled and the Lightning Struck
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, May 10, 2018, 10:40 a.m. Spring sports are winding down. Here in town, and throughout this end of Laurens County, all we have left are some girls competing in the state track meet and boys playing for the state tennis championship. Even football, for which the town is known, rises and …
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, April 14, 2018, 1:30 p.m. Friday was incomplete on the sports front, that is, unless going to a gathering to support youth tennis counts as sports. It didn’t seem particularly sporting. The food was great. A bunch of people got together to play their guitars and sing songs. I talked with …
Continue reading This Was a Friday Night that I Ain’t Got No Money
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, April 11, 2018, 9:59 a.m. The day was, in hindsight, just what I needed. I didn’t sleep well Monday night. I dreamed vividly. It was one of those long, drawn-out visions of frustration. I couldn’t shake it when I went to bed. It continued vividly through the night. Fortunately, Tuesday was …
Continue reading Kids Don’t Make Me Feel Young, but I Remember What It Was Like
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, April 1, 2018, 4:48 p.m. On Saturday morning, I left a couple small crises behind me as I drove down U.S. 76 to Newberry College, there to join my friends Brent and Sharon Sanders to watch their daughter, Hailey, play women’s lacrosse for Tusculum College against the Wolves. This was my …
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, March 8, 2018, 1:41 p.m. I've written about my first two baseball games of the spring. The home team won both. Both were in dramatic fashion. Both had runners cut down on the basepaths with disastrous consequences. One was a bit of a long shot, and the other was damned near …
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 11:17 a.m. In 2017, I wrote two novels about a young stock-racing ace named Barrie Jarman. Of my seven novels to date, they are the only ones related to each other. I've often explained this by saying that once I've completed the arduous process of writing a novel, …
Continue reading Why You’d Enjoy a Stock Car Racing Novel … or Two
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, February 25, 2018, 11:17 a.m. For twenty years, while I was writing about NASCAR, I didn't see a lot of women's basketball. Many times, people said to me, "You'd be amazed at how much better it is," and I'd say, "Well, probably so," without much commitment to delving into the matter. …
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, February 23, 2018, 9:35 a.m. The Laurens Academy girls' basketball team reminds me of my Honda Accord. Both wear blue and are approximately the same age. The Lady Crusaders have made three successful round trips to Sumter. The Honda has made two, with a side trip to Camden, on a single …
Continue reading The Penultimate Skirmish in a Great Crusade
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, February 9, 2018, 10:18 a.m. I must be getting old. I haven't seen it all, but I've seen most of it. Perhaps I could estimate with some degree of accuracy all the stock car races and ballgames I've attended and described, but it would be a waste of time and probably …
Nightrider's Lament 